Brown-Warren race coming up short, some say

A wish for focus on policy issues

Five months before voters go to the polls, political veterans from both sides of the ideological divide are bemoaning what they see as the lack of an elevated policy debate in the Massachusetts US Senate campaign, in contrast to some of the state’s great Senate contests of the past.

The major policy challenges facing the nation - education, the federal debt crisis, the challenge of an emerging China, climate change, and terrorism - have been left largely unexplored beyond press releases as Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican incumbent Scott Brown parry with each other in a closely watched race that could determine the balance of power in Washington.